Who Holds the Key?

For those of you who don't know, since I've come down here, I haven't had a doorknob on the outside of my bedroom door. It has always just been a little stump thing that you twist to get into the room. It has never really given me trouble, and hey, it makes me different, so we have always been on good terms. Well, I think we had our first fight the other day, which has caused a major rift in our relationship. In fact, it's more than a "major rift." I think we have broken up forever.

So, Wednesdays are always terrible days at school, but for some reason, I only had 4 kiddos show up, and it was a GREAT day. We had a lot of fun, actually. I was shocked at how smoothly a Wednesday could go; or so I thought. The afternoon came and went, and I found myself alone in the casa. A friend came by to see if he could borrow my keys to the school for an hour, so I knew he would be back shortly to drop them back off to me. Well, I was in my room working at my computer when the doorbell rang, so I had to finish typing rather quickly. Well, this guy is really persistent with ringing the doorbell, so I threw open my door and ran out to the gate to get the keys from him.

As I'm coming back in the house, I don't think anything of the fact that my door naturally closes on its own. Well, I go to turn the stump of a knob only to find that the door is locked. When I opened the door, it hit my wall and the lock got punched in, leaving me OUTSIDE my room when I wanted to be INSIDE. Hmmm... Bit of a dilemma, no? So, here I stand, alone, staring at my door in complete shock, completely confused about what I should do, and slowly realizing that my screwdrivers and/or hammer are locked in my room..... Along with everything else.

At first, I don't get too panicky because I think, "It's just a pop lock, so I need to find something small enough to stick in there and pop it open." No big deal, right? WRONG! NOTHING will fit. I pace back and forth through the house, alone because my roommates are out, not knowing what to do. I try sticking the end of a spoon in there, but it's too big. I stick a toothpick in there, but it breaks on me. I try shoving a pen in there, but it splits open and spills ink everywhere. So, here I am, ink all over my hands, staring at my door in shock. I try to clean myself up from the pen, and I go back to my door to do the only logical thing at this point. I threw myself at the door, shoulder first. Let me just tell you, these are good, SOLID, wooden doors. After about the fourth or fifth time of throwing myeslf into the "solid-as-concrete-and-unmoving-no-matter-how-much-weight-I-throw-into-it" door, I decide to use my foot. Again, the door is unmoving.

Now, if I wasn't in such a bad mood about my door and lack of doorknob (which means, lack of key also), I would have been able to think, "Wow, this is a great door... No one will be getting through it to take my stuff..." Unfortunately, that thought didn't cross my mind. Instead, a lot of other things crossed my mind, but I won't share those details with you. I tried to take a different approach by going outside to my windows. Unfortunately, there are metal coverings over the windows so that nothing can get through them. At this point, I am completely beside myself. I had already missed my evening phone call from Matt, and I just dumped myself over the end of my couch in fervent prayer.

I finally decided (after a good hour and a half of trying to unlock the door) that I was just going to have to wait for my roomies to get home. I turned on the television, and I decided to find something to watch for a little bit. During this time it started raining, and about 10 minutes later, the power went out. I'm so glad I had my flashlight..... LOCKED SAFELY IN MY ROOM. The hits just kept on coming. Luckily, the power came back on, and a few minutes later, my roomies made it home. I met them outside the door and almost burst into tears. They asked me what was up and all I could say, with unfallen tears glistening in my eyes, was, "I'm locked out of my room."

For Justin, that was like a challenge. Over the course of the next half hour, we tried sawing off the little stump, using a screwdriver (but we didn't have a flathead), shouldering the door in, credit cards, and finally the hammer. Oh the hammer...... First, we knocked off the stump on the outside. Next, we pounded the doorknob through the door so that I had a hole where it used to be. Unfortunately, the lock was still stuck. Finally, with the help of a small wire cutter, Justin managed to pull it out and open the door. I had been locked out of my room for 2 1/2 hours.

Needless to say, my relationship with my stump of a doorknob has been shattered along with the door handle itself. There was only one that held the key to opening it.... And it was none other than a hammer.

Taking the Old with the New

Well, I'm back to it... Yup, you guessed it! Laundry! Who knew that three weeks without washing my laundry by hand would turn my arms back to jello? I was feeling really ambitious on Saturday... I thought I would start off with the toughest stuff so that I could get it over with more quickly. Yeah.... Towels and jeans. Oy..... To make a long story short, I got everything done, there was a nice breeze to help my stuff to dry, it didn't rain (the sky must not have gotten the memo that I'm back yet), and my arms are still somehow attached to my body.

It has been abnormally cold here for the past couple weeks (a shocking 60-65 degrees), which is as close to home as I'm going to get, but the past few days have started warming back up. You know what that means? It means that the most evil of all insects emerges from hiding.... The mosquito. I don't understand... You kill one, you find five more bites. Just the other day, I had a killer mosquito attacking me from the North! I had two or three bites on my elbow... Another on my knuckle, and recently I've found some on my feet and my other elbow. What is with the elbows?!?!?!?!?! Do you even KNOW how hard it is to not scratch your elbow when there is a mosquito bite? You are constantly bumping it and making it even more itchy. Every time I saw the darn mosquito, it disappeared again. I never could swat it. Instead, a little later, it started dive bombing my face. What kind of place IS this?!?!?! Kamikaze mosquitos dive bombing my face and my elbows being turned into a soup kitchen for the little pests. I might as well hang a sign inviting them to a free dinner. Oy.

I am currently watching Jeopardy! by myself here at the house. Yeah... I said it, WATCHING TELEVISION! Can you believe it?! I'm moving up in this country. I now have a television and a microwave... Unfortunately, still no washer and dryer. I wouldn't want to get spoiled or anything...... *sigh*

Back to My Second Life...

Hey y'all!

I'm BACK!!!! Yup, it's true. I am back to my life as a Honduran after being home for just shy of 3 weeks. I was loving every minute of being home and having time with Matt and my family. Now, I am back to my second life down here, and it's the beginning of the end. This is my last 5 month stretch down here before I move back home.

For those of you who do not know, the three girls I lived with before Christmas are no longer down here, so I live at the house with a new couple. They are missionaries also, and they plan to be here a little over a year. They have been wonderful, and I look forward to getting to know them better.

So... Here's my latest adventure for those of you still interested in reading these updates:

It was a bright and snowy Indiana/Illinois day in the Midwest. Thursday, January 7, 2010... Flights are getting cancelled left and right, but my flight appeared to still be on time. Matt helped me drag all my luggage to the Continental counter where this lovely and super happy woman said, "Where are you going to?" I kindly replied, "Do you mean my next leg, or my final destination?" Without the smallest smile or hint of kindness, she repeated, "Where are you GOING to?" I am so glad that she clarified because I was really afraid I did not understand the question.....

Needless to say, I told her BOTH of my "destinations" so that she could do whatever she needed to do to give me my boarding passes. Well, without actually asking me, she told me that all the flights were delayed so she was changing me to the earliest flight that was supposed to leave at 1:50pm (but it was delayed until 3:30pm at this point). I asked how this would affect my connection in Houston, but she just told me that my flight from there was also delayed due to weather in Atlanta. Okay..... Good to know, I guess. Then, when she was finished, I almost didn't want to leave because of her overwhelming amount of cheeriness. *cough* Sarcasm! *cough*

Well, it was my parents, Matt, and me.... And we waited..... And waited..... And just for the heck of it, we decided to wait some more. We had left for the airport extra early so that we didn't have to worry about the weather. It was kind of strange because the screens with all the departures said that my original flight was still running on time, but the ever-so-kind woman at the counter told me that all the flights had been delayed. *shrugs* I didn't think much of it.

It finally came to the point where I had to say my final good-byes to my parents and Matt. It was EXTREMELY difficult because I was in tears, and my parents were also. I got up to security and went through everything okay. I got a pat down, and they rubbed these little towel thingies over my hands 2 different times on each hand. Apparently they didn't find my underwear bomb.... ;-) Just making sure you are paying attention.... Haha.

So, I went past the gate for my original flight (which STILL said it was running on time for the 3:05pm flight), and people were loading....... Now let me just say that the flight that I was now supposed to be on was delayed AGAIN until 4:05pm. I was starting to become a little nervous... I went up to the counter to ask about my Houston flight, and the woman told me that it was still scheduled as running "On Time" at 7pm (which the other woman had told me was DELAYED!!!), so I was only going to have a very short time to catch my connection. This woman also reprinted a boarding pass so that I could have the closest possible seat to the front of the plane. That was nice of her.

Unfortunately, my new flight didn't end up leaving until 4:30pm. It was an interesting flight (at least for the second half) because I was sitting next to this woman who just went through a breakup. For all those out there who need the solution, she would tell you it is a cocktail...... or 3. Phew. She was chatty for the rest of the flight. On the other hand, she asked about my mission and all that I was doing so it was a brief ministry opportunity, I guess you could say. She did compliment me (despite the excessive amount of alcohol and the numerous "F-bombs" that came out of her mouth) and say that she's never met anyone like me, and she thinks I am a wonderful person. Wow, I met all SORTS of people during this return trip.

Okay, so back to the time..... My flight is about to land in Houston at 6:55pm.... My flight OUT of Houston is supposed to leave at 7pm, and I have to run across 3/4 of the airport to catch it. Needless to say, I shoved my way through the First Class cabin (apologizing, but leaving numerous angry people in my wake) and down the little corridor to double check my gate for the San Pedro Sula flight. I could not afford any mistakes at this point. Sure enough, my gate had changed. This is when I met the most helpful woman of the night. She told me my new gate number and gave me the most ingenius advice I have ever heard. She said, and I quote, "Run."

Here I am, SPRINTING through the airport with a bag on each shoulder, panting like a dog in the summertime. Legs burning, heart pumping, breath wheezing..... I couldn't take anymore. I came to a complete halt in the middle of this hallway. At this point, a man drove up on one of those carts and I asked him if he could get me to my gate. It felt like he took a decade to answer, but he finally said, "Okay." So, I get to the gate, and the guy next to the closed door just shook his head and said, "It's already gone."

Wow.... I had so much emotion bottled up that I just burst into tears right in the middle of this airport where I was completely surrounded by people. The man just told me I had to go to Customer Service. I slowly made my way over, and found myself being told by this hard woman, who I could tell didn't want to be there, that I was going to have to wait for the 8:55am flight the next morning. 14 hours to wait for a flight..... What was I supposed to do? I was praying that I would make my flight so that I wouldn't have to spend the night in an airport, but for some reason, my prayers were left unanswered..... Or so I thought.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and the man at the gate for my flight said that they were holding the plane. I sprinted over, and they had to re-extend the little corridor out to reach the plane. The steward that met us at the plane door didn't sound too happy because he said that they now had to show the safety video all over again. Guess you can never be too safe, right?

All-in-all, I made it to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, CA by 10:30pm, only 35 minutes later than originally anticipated. I am grateful that I made it in one day, and I praise the Lord that He even went so far as to get my luggage here despite the fact that I almost missed my plane.

That is my miracle story and big adventure for the week.

Oh, and just so you all know...... I was kidding about the underwear bomb. ;-)